Storing, shipping and display package



y 1967 s. B. HENRICI ETAL 3,319,783

STORING, SHIPPING AND DISPLAY PACKAGE Filed May 12, 1964 5 5 A\ /1\ N 6 2 A 7 23/46 2 3 2 3 Fig.1. Fig.2,

Fig.3.

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INVENTORS. STANLEY B. HENRICI 0nd BY PETER KENNETH SHOEMAKER their ATTORNEYS Fig.5.

United States Patent vauia Filed May 12, 1964, Ser. No. 366,809 1 Claim. (Cl. 206-65) This invention relates to the shipping and display of merchandise that is packed in rigid containers, specifically cans and glass jars, and is for a package for such products designed to assist the merchant in the handling, merchandising and display of such products.

Products designated generally as canned goods, whether in metal or in glass, are customarily packaged by the producers in boxes or cartons, usually in case lOts of twenty-four units to the carton. To merchandise these products the merchant must remove the contents of one or more cartons, and if he wishes to make a floor or shelf display, he must build a pyramid or other exhibit by carefully placing individual containers side by side and one upon another until he may have constructed a display with several dozen cans or jars. If it is a floor display, it may be easily bumped or damaged by a shopping cart or customer, and the containers may be damaged or broken. Moreover, Warehouse men, shippers and other merchandise handlers are inclined to handle the cartons with less care than they should, so that broken jars and dented cans are not uncommon.

The present invention groups a number, conveniently a case lot of containers in a shallow cardboard tray, and the entire assembly is tightly wrapped completely or in part in a transparent thin wrapper, such as cellophane, or acetate or polyethylene sheeting, or like transparent wrapping. A substance such as polyethylene that is tough and strong and not easily ruptured is preferred. This provides a package with an adequately rigid bottom support and of a size that will retain the desired number of containers snugly in such contacting relation as will restrain them from shifting about, While the sides of the tray conceal only the lower portions of the labels. The containers are all of the same height, and the transparent film is stretched tight over the top and sides and folded to form a tight envelope or partial enclosure that holds cans or jars neatly in place. The package is then parallelepiped, with a fiat top and bottom, and the side are transparent to clearly display the labeled containers inside it.

Since the containers themselves are rigid, the packages may be stacked to any usual height for storage or warehousing. The visibility of the contents is conducive to careful handling. To make an attractive display the merchant may build the exhibit using complete packages and still show the containers and their labels attractively and to good advantage.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate the invention:

FIG. 1 is an end view of the package;

FIG. 2 is a side view;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 wherein a sheet of cardboard is enclosed in the top of the package;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view indicating how the containers may be stacked into an exhibit or display arrangement; and

FIG. 5 is a transverse broken section on a larger scale showing a modified construction.

In the drawings wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts, 2 designates a cardboard tray having a bottom 3 and shallow side walls 4 about its periphery. As here illustrated, the tray is rectangular 3,319,783 Patented May 16, 1967 ice and of a size to snugly hold four rows of containers crosswise with six containers in each row, making a total of twenty-four containers, each container contacting the adjacent ones so that they cannot shift about. Dilferent diameters of jars or cans use different size trays. Of course the tray may be designed to hold more or fewer containers, but preferably there are enough rows of a length so that the completed packages may be stacked without danger of toppling. All of the containers, here designated 5, are of the same height.

The filled trays are tightly wrapped with a transparent wrapper 6, of the character above described, a tough, non-brittle film being desirable. The ends are here shown by way of example as being folded in usual package folds and extend under the tray, and the sides also extend under the tray, but it may be otherwise fitted over the tray and containers. The film is heat-sealed or sealed to the tray, and is drawn taut before being secured. Thus it presents a neat package with the sides of the tray well below the vertical center of the containers so that important areas of the labels of the containers are visible. Since the plastic wrapper is tight, it retains the containers in the tray. The tops of the packages are flat, so that the trays may be readily stacked and the containers transmit the vertical load from one tray to the tray beneath. This provides a better stacking package than the cardboard cartons now used for the reason that cartons, especially at the bottom of the stack, may compress and yield enough to cause a stack to list to and possibly topple over. Of course with glass jars, for example baby foods, separating strips, like egg crate partitions, may be used between the jars.

In some cases, as with heavier cans, it may be desirable to have a flat cardboard panel 7, as shown in FIG. 3, of an area coextensive in area with the tray over the containers inside the transparent wrapper. A variation of this is shown in FIG. 5 where the transparent wrapper, here designated 9, is a band that extends around the package, with its edges sealed completely around the package to the cardboard panel 7 at the top, and with its bottom edge sealed in a similar way around the package to the tray 2. With either the form shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 5, the cardboard panel may carry advertising and/ or present a striking color display.

While we are aware that meat and vegetables are often packaged in trays covered with a transparent wrapper, this is for sanitary reasons and to retain freshness and let the purchaser view the contents from the top, but these are not packages of several rigid containers designed to be stacked and still display the labels on the containers, and the present invention provides a new concept in the distribution and merchandising of food and other products packed in jars and cans.

Exhibits can be attractively arranged using stacked trays as shown in FIG. 4, and which is only illustrative of how exhibits may be formed. Such an exhibit, designated 8, enables the customer to still see the merchandise with its labels attractively displayed without the need of stacking individual cans or jars, or the peril of the display being easily toppled. Ends and sides of packages may be alternated, or various other structural arrangements can be devised and quickly constructed, or after a time, taken down.

In addition to the numerous advantages hereinbefore mentioned, there are many others, particularly to the retailer who finds that the packages may be opened with greater ease by slitting them with a knife, and the volume of waste is much less since the trays and wrappers are much less bulky than cartons and more easily handled. Dust and lint which settle on cans in cartons cannot filter into the packages, so that when a tray is opened the cans a or containers Will be clean and dust-free. Also, there may be two trays, as for example two narrow trays side by side in a single package, or if desired, one tray may be placed on another in a single package.

We claim:

A combined shipping, storage and display package of products packed in rigid containers with labels thereabout comprising a shallow tray with upstanding side and end walls, a plurality of rigid containers of like shape, height and size snugly fitted in the tray and restrained by the tray and by one another from shifting about in the tray, the Walls of the tray being substantially less in height than the height of the containers whereby a major area of the labels on the walls are exposed above the walls of the tray, a flat panel of cardboard substantially coextensive in area with the tray positioned on top of the containers, and a transparent wrapper enclosing the tray, the walls and the panel for confining the containers in the tray, said cardboard panel acting to protect the transparent wrapper from being cut or broken by direct contact with the top edges of the individual containers while the transparent wrapper exposes the labels to view.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner. 

